Method and apparatus for performing a function in a process plant using monitoring data with criticality evaluation data

ABSTRACT

A method and system for monitoring an entity within a process plant includes collecting entity status data pertaining to the status of an entity within the process plant collecting criticality data pertaining to the importance of the entity within the process plant, and using the entity status data and the criticality data to perform a function within the process plant.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.60/669,573 which was filed on Apr. 8, 2005 and from U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 60/669,572 which was filed on Apr. 8, 2005, both ofwhich are expressly incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure relates generally to process control systemswithin process plants and, more particularly, to monitoring assetswithin a process plant.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Process control systems, like those used in chemical, petroleum or otherprocesses, typically include one or more centralized or decentralizedprocess controllers communicatively coupled to at least one host oroperator workstation and to one or more process control andinstrumentation devices, such as field devices, via analog, digital orcombined analog/digital buses. Field devices, which may be, for examplevalves, valve positioners, switches, transmitters, and sensors (e.g.,temperature, pressure and flow rate sensors), perform functions withinthe process such as opening or closing valves and measuring processparameters. The process controller receives signals indicative ofprocess measurements or process variables made by or associated with thefield devices and/or other information pertaining to the field devices,uses this information to implement a control routine and then generatescontrol signals which are sent over one or more of the buses to thefield devices to control the operation of the process. Information fromthe field devices and the controller is typically made available to oneor more applications executed by an operator workstation to enable anoperator to perform desired functions with respect to the process, suchas viewing the current state of the process, modifying the operation ofthe process, etc.

While a typical process control system has many process control andinstrumentation devices, such as valves, transmitters, sensors, etc.connected to one or more process controllers which execute software thatcontrols these devices during the operation of the process, there aremany other supporting devices which are also necessary for or related toprocess operation. These additional devices include, for example, powersupply equipment, power generation and distribution equipment, rotatingequipment such as turbines, etc., which are located at numerous placesin a typical plant. While this additional equipment does not necessarilycreate or use process variables and, in many instances, is notcontrolled or even coupled to a process controller for the purpose ofaffecting the process operation, this equipment is neverthelessimportant to and ultimately necessary for proper operation of theprocess.

Still further, many process plants have other computers associatedtherewith which execute applications related to business functions ormaintenance functions. For example, some plants include computers whichexecute applications associated with ordering raw materials, replacementparts or devices for the plant, applications related to forecastingsales and production needs, etc. Likewise, many process plants, andespecially those which use smart field devices, include applicationswhich are used to help monitor and maintain the devices within the plantregardless of whether these devices are process control andinstrumentation devices or are other types of devices. For example, theAsset Management Solutions (AMS) application sold by Fisher-RosemountSystems, Inc. enables communication with and stores data pertaining tofield devices to ascertain and track the operating state of the fielddevices. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.5,960,214 entitled “Integrated Communication Network for use in a FieldDevice Management System.” In some instances, the AMS application may beused to communicate with devices to change parameters within the device,to cause the device to run applications on itself, such as selfcalibration routines or self diagnostic routines, to obtain informationabout the status or health of the device, etc. This information may bestored and used by a maintenance person to monitor and maintain thesedevices. For example, AMS Device Managet sold by Fisher-RosemountSystems, Inc. manages and performs online monitoring of instruments,such as valves, transmitters, etc. within the process plant to provideonline monitoring data, diagnostics, alerts, etc of various assetswithin the process plant. Likewise, there are other types ofapplications which are used to monitor other types of devices, such asrotating equipment and power generation and supply devices. For example,AMS Machinery Manager sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. analyzesand manages rotating machinery in addition to pumps, motors and otherequipment within a process plant. These other applications are typicallyavailable to the maintenance persons and are used to monitor andmaintain the devices within a process plant.

Given that a typical process plant may easily includes hundreds andthousands of interconnected assets, some assets are more critical to aprocess within the plant or to the plant itself. For example, astrategically utilized valve or transmitter may affect the operation ofan entire process within the process plant as much as, or more than, aparticular rotating equipment. Criticality evaluation services, such asfailure defense planning provided by CSi Systems of Knoxville, Tenn.,have been provided to evaluate the various assets within a plant anddetermining their effect on other operations in the plant. The resultingevaluations provide information regarding the criticality of each assetwithin a plant. In particular, a maintenance priority index is providedto quantify the criticality of the asset to the loop, sub-unit, unit,area, or plant to which it belongs. Such information is particularlyuseful in planning plant operations, such as procedures for dealing withthe failure of particular assets.

Also in a typical process plant, maintenance systems and applicationsare provided, such as Computer Maintenance Management systems,work/parts order generation routines and other maintenance applications,which may be used to generate work and part orders in response to adetected problem with a plant asset. The orders may be tracked tomonitor the performance and completion of maintenance activities. Suchmaintenance systems and applications further include data regarding theassets within the plant, including procedures for maintaining andrepairing the assets.

However, in the typical plant or process, the functions associated withthe process control activities, the device and equipment maintenanceactivities, the monitoring activities, the criticality evaluations andthe business activities are separated, both in the location in; whichthese activities take place and in the personnel who typically performthese activities. Furthermore, the different people involved in thesedifferent functions generally use different tools, such as differentapplications run on different computers to perform the differentfunctions.

Due to the abundance of data analysis and other detection and diagnostictools available in the process control environment, either in the plantitself or via outside service companies or consultants, there is a lotof maintenance information which could be helpful to process operatorsand business persons. Similarly, there is a lot of information availableto the process operator about the current operational status of theprocess control loops and other routines which may be helpful to themaintenance person or to the business person. Further, criticalityinformation may be helpful to all persons within a plant. For example,the maintenance person may find information relating to the importanceof each asset particularly useful in generating, directing andprioritizing work orders and part orders. However, in the past, becausethese functions were separated, status information; criticalityinformation and information regarding corrective measures were generatedor collected in one functional area was not used at all, or not usedvery well in other functional areas which led to an overall sub-optimaluse of the -assets within process plants.

SUMMARY

A process control system includes a data collection and distributionsystem that collects and stores data from different data sources, eachof which may use it own proprietary manner of acquiring or generatingthe data in the first place. The data collection and distribution systemthen makes the stored data available to other applications associatedwith or provided in the process control system or to applicationsassociated with the data sources themselves for use in any desiredmanner. In this manner, applications may use data from vastly differentdata sources to provide a better view or insight into the currentoperational status of a plant, to make better or more completemaintenance decisions regarding the plant, etc. Thus, applications maybe provided which combine or use data from previously disparatecollection systems such as status information, criticality information,and corrective measures to determine a better overall view or state of aprocess control plant, or to take better corrective measures within theplant. For example, information or data may be collected pertaining tothe status of various equipment or other entities within a plant.Likewise, criticality information pertaining to the importance of theequipment or entity may be collected, and information pertaining to thestatus of a corrective measure associated with the equipment or entitymay be collected.

Using the disclosed data collection and distribution system, status dataand criticality data may be combined, for example, to perform improvedfunctions within a plant, including monitoring functions, diagnosticfunctions, maintenance functions, decisions, analyses, control, andoptimization. Further, using the disclosed data collection anddistribution system, status data and corrective measure status data maybe combined perform improved corrective measures within a plant. Stillfurther, the status data and corrective measure data may be combinedwith criticality data to perform improved corrective measures within theplant. Likewise, the detection of a problem, may cause the system andmethod to automatically generate or modify replacement parts, workorders or other corrective measures. There are, of course, many othertypes of applications to which the combination of status, criticalityand/or corrective measure data can be an aid by providing different andmore complete information about the status of the assets within aprocess control plant to all areas of the process plant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a process plant displaying an exampleof a hierarchical structure of equipment and instructions implemented ina process plant;

FIG. 2 is a data and information flow diagram with respect to an assetmonitoring and maintenance system within the plant of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view status information,criticality information and corrective measure information of highpriority assets;

FIGS. 4-7 are exemplary graphical displays that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view status information,criticality information and corrective measure information of a lowerlevel entity;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view status information ofa higher level entity;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view status information ofa higher level entity;

FIG. 10 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view status information,criticality information and corrective measure information of lowerlevel entities within a higher level entity;

FIG. 11 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view alert information;

FIG. 12 is an exemplary graphical display that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view audit trailinformation of historical events;

FIGS. 13 and 14 are exemplary graphical displays that may be provided bya graphical user interface to enable a user to view status informationof varying levels within a plant; and

FIGS. 15-17 are exemplary graphical displays that may be provided by agraphical user interface to enable a user to view various data sourceswithin a plant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a process plant 10 includes a number ofbusiness and other computer systems interconnected with a number ofcontrol and maintenance systems by one or more communication networks.The process plant 10 includes one or more process control systems 12 and14. The process control system 12 may be a traditional process controlsystem such as a PROVOX or RS3 system or any other DCS which includes anoperator interface 12A coupled to a controller 12B and to input/output(I/O) cards 12C which, in turn, are coupled to various field devicessuch as analog and Highway Addressable Remote Transmitter (HART) fielddevices 15. The process control system 14, which may be a distributedprocess control system, includes one or more operator interfaces 14Acoupled to one or more distributed controllers 14B via a bus, such as anEthernet bus. The controllers 14B may be, for example, DeltaV™controllers sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. of Austin, Tex. orany other desired type of controllers. The controllers 14B are connectedvia I/O devices to one or more field devices 16, such as for example,HART or Fieldbus field devices or any other smart or non-smart fielddevices including, for example, those that use any of the PROFIBUS®,WORLDFIP®, Device-Net®, AS-Interface and CAN protocols. As is known, thefield devices 16 may provide analog or digital information to thecontrollers 14B related to process variables as well as to other deviceinformation. The operator interfaces 14A may store and execute toolsavailable to the process control operator for controlling the operationof the process including, for example, control optimizers, diagnosticexperts, neural networks, tuners, etc.

Still further, maintenance systems, such as computers executing the AMSapplication, such as AMS Device Manager sold by Fisher-RosemountSystems, Inc., or any other device monitoring and-communicationapplications may be connected to the process control systems 12 and 14or to the individual devices therein to perform maintenance andmonitoring activities. For example, a maintenance computer 18 may beconnected to the controller 12B and/or to the devices 15 via any desiredcommunication lines or networks (including wireless or handheld devicenetworks) to communicate with and, in some instances, reconfigure orperform other maintenance activities on the devices 15. Similarly,maintenance applications such as the AMS application may be installed inand executed by one or more of the user interfaces 14A associated withthe distributed process control system 14 to perform maintenance andmonitoring functions, including data collection related to the operatingstatus of the devices.16.

The process plant 10 also includes various rotating equipment 20, suchas turbines, motors, etc. which are connected to a maintenance computer22 via some permanent or temporary communication link (such as a bus, awireless communication system or hand held devices which are connectedto the equipment 20 to take readings and are then removed). Themaintenance computer 22 may store and execute known monitoring anddiagnostic applications 23, for example RBMwareTM sold by CSi Systems ofKnoxville, Tenn., AMS Machinery Manager sold by Fisher-RosemountSystems, Inc. or other any other known applications used to diagnose,monitor and optimize the operating state of the rotating equipment 20.Maintenance personnel usually use the applications 23 to maintain andoversee the performance of rotating equipment 20 in the plant 10, todetermine problems with the rotating equipment 20 and to determine whenand if the rotating equipment 20 must be repaired or replaced.

Similarly, a power generation and distribution system 24 having powergenerating and distribution equipment 25 associated with the plant 10 isconnected via, for example, a bus, to another computer 26 which runs andoversees the operation of the power generating and distributionequipment 25 within the plant 10. The computer 26 may execute knownpower control and diagnostics applications 27 such as those provided by,for example, Liebert and ASCO or other companies to control and maintainthe power generation and distribution equipment 25.

A computer system 30 is provided which is communicatively connected tothe computers or interfaces associated with the various finctionalsystems within the plant 10, including the process control functions 12and 14, the maintenance functions such as those implemented in thecomputers 18, 14A, 22 and 26 and the business functions. In particular,the computer system 30 is communicatively connected to the traditionalprocess control system 12 and to the maintenance interface 18 associatedwith that control system, is connected to the process control and/ormaintenance interfaces 14A of the distributed process control system 14,is connected to the rotating equipment maintenance computer 22 and tothe power generation and distribution computer 26, all via a bus 32. Thebus 32 may use any desired or appropriate local area network (LAN) orwide area network (WAN) protocol to provide communications.Alternatively, or in addition, the computer system 30 process controlsystem 12, distributed process control system 14, maintenance interface18, process control and/or maintenance interfaces 14A, rotatingequipment maintenance computer 22, and/or the power generation anddistribution computer 26 may be interconnected via an internet andcommunicate via an internet-compatible protocol. Accordingly; the plant10 may be provided with viewing and control functions via one or moreremote facilities which to view and control the various systems,computers and routines within the plant 10.

In addition, remote monitoring facilities may be communicatively coupledto the plant 10 via the internet to provide access to additionalanalysis and diagnostics resources. In one example, the plant 10 may becoupled to a failure defense planning system, which includes an analysisof the various plant assets and prioritizes the assets according totheir importance to the plant or to systems within the plant to providecriticality data.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the computer 30 is also connected via the sameor a different network bus 32 to business system computers andmaintenance planning computers 35 and 36, which may execute, forexample, enterprise resource planning (ERP), material resource planning(MRP), computer maintenance management systems (CMMS) including workorder generation and tracking tools such as SAP and Maximo both sold byFisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc., accounting, production and customerordering systems, maintenance planning systems or any other desiredbusiness applications such as parts, supplies and raw materials orderingapplications, production scheduling applications, etc. An example of awork order and parts order generation and tracking tool is disclosed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/086,159 entitled “Automatic WorkOrder/Parts Order Generation and Tracking” which was filed on Feb. 28,2002 and is expressly incorporated by reference herein. The computer 30may also be connected via, for example, the bus 32, to a plantwide LAN37, a corporate WAN 38 as well as to a computer system 40 that enablesremote monitoring of or communication with the plant 10 from remotelocations.

In one embodiment, the communications over the bus 32 occur using theXML/XSL protocol. Here, data from each of the computers 12A, 18, 14A,22, 26, 35, 36, etc. is wrapped in an XML/XSL wrapper and is sent to anXML/XSL data server which may be located in, for example, the computer30. Because XML/XSL is a descriptive language, the server can processany type of data. At the server, if necessary, the data is encapsulatedwith a new XML/XSL wrapper, i.e., this data is mapped from one XML/XSLschema to one or more other XML/XSL schemas which are created for eachof the receiving applications. Thus, each data originator can wrap itsdata using a schema understood or convenient for that device orapplication, and each receiving application can receive the data in adifferent schema used for or understood by the receiving application.The server is configured to map one schema to another schema dependingon the source and destination(s) of the data. If desired, the server mayalso perform certain data processing functions or other functions basedon the receipt of data. The mapping and processing function rules areset up and stored in the server prior to operation of the systemdescribed herein. In this manner, data may be sent from any oneapplication to one or more other applications.

Generally speaking, the computer 30 stores and executes an assetutilization expert 50 that collects data and other information generatedby the process control systems 12 and 14, the maintenance systems 18, 22and 26 and the business systems 35 and 36 as well as informationgenerated by data analysis tools executed in each of these systems. Theasset utilization expert 50 may be based on, for example, the OZ expertsystem currently provided by NEXUS. However, the asset utilizationexpert 50 may be any other desired type of expert system including, forexample, any type of data mining system. An example of an assetutilization expert is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,532 to Eryurek etal., (issued Nov. 2, 2004), which is hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein.

The asset utilization expert 50 operates as a data and informationclearinghouse in the process plant 10 and is able to coordinate thedistribution of data or information from one functional area, such asthe maintenance-area, to other functional areas, such as the processcontrol or the business functional areas. The asset utilization expert50 may also use the collected data to generate new information or datawhich can be distributed to one or more of the computer systemsassociated with the different functions within the plant 10. Stillfurther, the asset utilization expert 50 may execute or oversee theexecution of other applications that .use the collected data to generatenew types of data to be used within the process plant 10.

In particular, the asset utilization expert 50 may include or executeindex generation software 51 that creates indices associated withdevices, like process control and instrumentation devices, powergeneration devices, rotating equipment, units, areas, etc, or that areassociated with process control entities, like loops, etc. within theplant 10. These indices can then be provided to the process controlapplications to help optimize process control and can be provided to thebusiness software or business applications to provide the businesspersons more complete or understandable information associated with theoperation of the plant 10. The asset utilization expert 50 can alsoprovide maintenance data (such as device status information) andbusiness data (such as data associated with scheduled orders,timeframes, etc.) to a control expert 52 associated with, for example,the process control system 14 to help an operator perform controlactivities such as optimizing control. The control expert 52 may belocated in, for example, the user interface 14A or any other computerassociated with the control system 14 or within the computer 30 ifdesired.

In one embodiment, the control expert 52 may be, for example, thecontrol expert described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,454 to Schleiss et al.(issued Oct. 2, 2001) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,782 to Schleiss et al.(issued Oct. 14, 2003), both of which are hereby expressly incorporatedby reference herein. However, these control experts may additionallyincorporate and use data related to the status of devices or otherhardware within the process plant 10 in the decision making performed bythese control experts. In particular, in the past the software controlexperts generally only used process variable data and some limiteddevice status data to make decisions or recommendations to the processoperator. With the communication provided by the asset utilizationexpert 50, especially that related to device status information such asthat provided by the computer systems 18, 14A, 22 and 26 and the dataanalysis tools implemented thereon, the control expert 52 can receiveand incorporate device status information such as health, performance,utilization and variability informationfinto its decision making alongwith process variable information.

Additionally, the asset utilization expert 50 can provide informationpertaining to states of devices and the operation of the controlactivities within the plant 10 to the business systems 35 and 36 where,for example, a work order generation application or program 54, such asa Computer Maintenance Management system, can automatically generatework orders and order parts based on detected problems within the plant10 or where supplies can be ordered based on work being performed.Similarly, changes in the control system detected by the assetutilization expert 50 may cause the business systems 35 or 36 to runapplications that perform scheduling and supply orders using, forexample, the program 54. In the same manner, changes in customer ordersetc. can be entered into the business systems 35 or 36 and this data canbe sent to the asset utilization expert 50 and sent to the controlroutines or control expert 52 to cause changes in the control to, forexample, begin making the newly ordered products or to implement thechanges made in the business systems 35 and 36. Of course, if desired,each computer system connected to the bus 32 may have an applicationtherein that functions to obtain the appropriate data from the otherapplications within the computer and to sending this data to, forexample, the asset utilization expert 50.

Additionally, the asset utilization expert 50 can send information toone or more optimizers 55 within the plant 10. For example, a controloptimizer 55 can be located in the computer 14A and can run one or morecontrol optimization routines 55A, 55B, etc. Additionally oraltematively, optimizer routines 55 could be stored in and executed bythe computer 30 or any other computer, and the data necessary thereforecould be sent by the asset utilization expert 50. An example of an assetoptimizer is the AMS optimizer sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. Ifdesired, the plant 10 may also include models 56 that model certainaspects of the plant 10 and these models 56 can be executed by the assetutilization expert 50 or a control or other expert such as the controlexpert 52 to perform modeling functions, the purpose of which will bedescribed in more detail herein. Generally speaking, however, the models56 can be used to determine device, area, unit, loop, etc. parameters,to detect faulty sensors or other faulty equipment, as part of optimizerroutines 55, to generate indices such as performance and utilizationindices for use in the plant 10, to perform performance or conditionmonitoring, as well as for many other uses. The models 56 may be modelssuch as those created by and sold by MDC Technology located in Teeside,England or may be any other desired types of models. There are, ofcourse, many other applications that can be provided within the plant 10and that can use the data from the asset utilization expert 50 and thesystem described herein is not limited- to the applications specificallymentioned herein. Overall, however, the asset utilization expert 50helps to optimize the .use of all of the assets within the plant 10 byenabling the sharing of data and coordination of assets between all ofthe functional areas of the plant 10.

The asset utilization expert 50 receives data as it is generated or atcertain periodic times over, for example, the bus 32 or other anycommunication network within the process plant 10. Thereafter,periodically or as needed, the asset utilization expert 50 redistributesthe data to other applications or uses that data to generate and provideother information useful in different aspects of the control oroperation of the process plant 10 to other function systems within theplant 10. In particular, the asset utilization expert 50 may supply datato cause the index generation routine 51 to create a series of compositeindices such as a performance index, a utilization index, a health indexand a variability index associated with one or more of the devices,units, loops, areas, or other entities within the process plant 10. Theindices will be discussed in more detail herein.

The use of models provides many new types of data or information for thebusiness applications, process-control applications and assetmaintenance and monitoring applications. In particular, the models canbe used to perform performance monitoring and to produce a performanceindex which indicates the relative performance of a device, unit, area,etc. within a plant. This performance index may be a measure of theperformance of an entity with respect to the possible performance ofthat entity. While device and unit models may be made and executed,similar models could be made and executed for process control entities,such as loops, units, etc. to provide performance measures andoptimization criteria for these types of entities as well. Also, modelsmay, in some cases, be used to measure or indicate the health of certaindevices or other entities and to provide a health index indicative ofthese entities. For example, the error measurements of certain input andoutput sensors as determined by the regression analysis used on certainmodels may be used as or converted into an indication of the health ofthose devices. Also, other information not otherwise available to theprocess controller, such as model parameters and virtual sensormeasurements based on the models could be provided to the processcontrollers or to the business persons for use in numerous manners.

Besides performance and health indices, the asset utilization expert 50can assist the index generation routine 51 in creating other types ofindices such as a utilization index and a variability index. Avariability index indicates how much some signal into or out of, or someother parameter associated with a device, loop, unit, etc. varies ascompared to how much this signal or parameter is expected to vary. Thedata needed to create this variability index may be collected by theasset utilization expert 50 and provided to the index generation routine51 at any desired or convenient times. Of course, the normal amount ofvariation of a signal or parameter may be set by a manufacturer,engineer, operator or maintenance person familiar with the entity or maybe based on a statistical measure (such as an average, standarddeviation, etc.) associated with that or other similar entities withinthe plant and this normal or expected variation may be stored by orupdated within the index generation routine 51.

The utilization index, in one form or another, tracks or reflects theutilization of individual devices, units, loops, or other entities andmay provide some indication as to whether these entities are being overutilized or under utilized based on previously determined bench marks oroperational goals. A utilization index can be generated based onmeasured uses of the actual device. For example, a device may bemeasured as to how often it is being used within a process or is beingleft idle and this index may be compared to a desired utilization forthat entity to determine if the entity is being over or under utilized.The utilization index might identify devices, units, loops, etc. whichare not being utilized as often as they could be or should be or, on theother hand, which are being utilized too much and, thus, are being overused. In some instances, a utilization index might be determined basedon the business decisions made regarding the appropriate or desired useof a particular device.

Also, generally speaking, one or more user interface routines 58 can bestored in and executed by one or more of the computers within the plant10. For example, the computer 30, the user interface 14A, the businesssystem computer 35 or any other computer may run a user interfaceroutine 58. Each user interface routine 58 can receive or subscribe toinformation from the asset utilization expert 50, AMS applications,maintenance computers 18, 20, business computers 35, 36, failure defenseplanning evaluations, etc. and either the same or different sets of datamay be sent to each of the user interface routines 58. Any one of theuser interface routines 58 can provide different types of informationusing different screens to different users. For example, one of the userinterface routines 58 may provide a screen or set of screens to acontrol operator or to a business person to enable that person to setconstraints or to choose optimization variables for use in a standardcontrol routine or in a control optimizer routine. The user interfaceroutine 58 may provide a control guidance tool that enables a user toobtain information about the states of devices, control loops, units,etc., such as status and criticality, and to easily see the informationrelated to the problems with these entities, as that information hasbeen detected by other software within the process plant 10. Inaddition, the control guidance tool allows the operator or any otherperson to view the status of and modify maintenance procedures relatedto solving detected or predicted problems with the plant assets,including maintenance procedures and corrective measures provided by theCMMS such as work orders, part orders or other corrective measures.

The user interface routine 58 may also provide performance monitoringscreens using performance monitoring data provided by or generated bythe tools 23 and 27, the maintenance programs such as the AMSapplication-or any other maintenance programs, or as generated by themodels in conjunction with the asset utilization expert 50. Of course,the user interface routine 58 may provide any user access to and enablethe user to change preferences or other variables used in any or allfunctional areas of the plant 10.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a data flow diagram illustrating some of thedata flow between an asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 andother data tools or data sources is provided. In particular, the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60 may receive monitoring informationfrom numerous data collectors or data sources such as multiplexers,transmitters, sensors, hand held devices, control systems, radiofrequency (RF) transceivers, on-line control systems, on-line monitoringsystems, web servers, historians, control modules or othercontrol-applications within the process plant 10, interfaces such asuser interfaces and I/O interfaces as well as data servers such as buses(e.g., Fieldbus, HART and Ethernet buses), valves, transceivers,sensors, servers and controllers and other plant assets such as processinstrumentation, rotating equipment, electrical equipment, powergeneration equipment, variable speed drivers, etc. This data can take onany desired form based on how the data is generated or used by otherfunctional systems. Still further, this data may be sent to the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60 using any desired or appropriatedata communication protocol and communication hardware such as the XMLprotocol discussed above. Generally speaking, however, the plant 10 willbe configured so that the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60automatically receives specific kinds of data from one or more of thedata sources.

Also, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 receivesinformation from data analysis tools such as typical maintenance dataanalysis tools which are currently provided today, performance trackingtools, such as those associated with devices, as well as performancetracking tools for process control systems like that described in U.S.Pat. Nos. 6,298,454 and 6,633,782 identified above. The data analysistools may also include, for example, a root cause application whichdetects root causes of certain types of problems, event detection suchas that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,143, regulatory loopdiagnostics such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,114 to Eryureket al. (issued May 28, 2002), which is hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein, impulse lines plugging detection applications, such asthat described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,654,697 to Eryurek et al. (issued Nov.25, 2003), which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein,other plugged line detection applications, device status applications,online monitoring devices, device configuration applications, devicestorage, historian and information display tools, online monitoringtools such as AMS Device Manager and AMS Machinery Manager, and Explorerapplications and audit trail applications. Monitoring data and analysisdata may further be received from the asset utilization expert 50,including the use indices described above.

Further, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 can receivemaintenance data related to maintenance activities within the processplant 10 from maintenance applications 66, including CMMS and other workorder generation routines 54. For example, the asset monitoring andmaintenance system 60 may receive data relating to work orders and partorders generated by the maintenance applications 66, including detailsregarding the orders such as the request for the order, the status ofthe order, the personnel involved, the parts involved, the maintenanceprocedures for the asset, the time and date the order was generated,etc. Additional information received by the asset monitoring andmaintenance system 60 can include details regarding the problem orpredicted problem with the asset and the alert or alarm that promptedthe order.

Still further, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 canreceive data and any information from process control data analysistools such as the advanced control expert 52, model predictive controlprocess routines such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,609 toWojsznis et al. (issued Apr. 13, 2004), which is hereby expresslyincorporated by reference herein, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,445,963 to Blevinset al. (Issued Sep. 3, 2002), which is hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein, tuning, routines, fuzzy logic control routines andneural network control routines, as well as from virtual sensors such asthat described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,409 to Qin et al., which isexpressly incorporated by reference herein and which may be providedwithin the plant 10.

Still further, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 mayreceive information from data analysis tools related to rotatingequipment such as on-line vibration, RF wireless sensors and hand-helddata collection units, oil analysis associated with rotating equipment,thermography, ultra-sonic systems and laser alignment and balancingsystems, all of which may be related to detecting problems or the statusof rotating equipment within the process plant 10. These tools arecurrently known in the art and so will not be described further herein.

Still further, the set monitoring and maintenance system 60 may receivedata related to power management and power equipment and supplies suchas the applications 23 and 27 of FIG. 1, which may include any desiredpower management and power equipment monitoring and analysis tools.Additional data sources from which the asset monitoring and maintenancesystem 60 may receive data include control routines 62 which may belocated in process controllers or interfaces associated with thosecontrollers and which may provide process control data in addition tothat provided above, optimizers 55 which may provide optimization data,models 56 which may provide the indices described above and processperformance data, business applications 64, etc.

In addition, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 may receivecriticality data from failure defense planning evaluations 68 which maybe provided via a database within the plant 10 or as a remote service.Generally, the failure defense planning evaluations are typicallystructured in a hierarchical manner where assets are composed of otherassets. For example, various equipment or devices within the processplant may be interconnected in physical and/or logical groups to createa logical process, such as a control loop. Likewise, a control loop maybe interconnected with other control loops and/or devices to createsub-units. A sub-unit may be interconnected with other sub-units tocreate a unit, which in turn, may be interconnected with other units tocreate an area. Process plants generally include interconnected areas,and business entities generally include process plants which may beinterconnected. As a result, a process plant includes numerous levels ofhierarchy having interconnected assets, and a business enterprise mayinclude interconnected process plants. This organization allows users toview and manage the plant 10 and maintenance activities of the systemsand assets within the plant 10. The corresponding criticality datarelates to the importance of the assets within the plant 10 and may beuseful when viewing status information and making maintenance decisions.

The criticality data may be provided as a result of on-site evaluationsby service personnel, such as the failure defense planning servicesprovided by CSi Systems of Knoxville, Tenn., which includes evaluatingthe various assets within a plant and determining their effect on otheroperations in the plant, including, but not limited to, process controloperations, business functions and maintenance functions. For example,some equipment (e.g., a strategically placed valve) is considered morecritical to the larger loop, sub-unit, unit, area, plant, etc. of whichthe equipment is a part. If the equipment were to fail it would havemore of an impact on the loop, sub-unit, unit, area, etc. than if theother equipment (e.g., rotating equipment) were to fail. Such equipmentwould therefore deserve priority over the other equipment. In turn, theremaining equipment may have varying degrees of importance within theloop, sub-unit, unit or area. The on-site evaluations conclude that suchequipment has a greater impact and therefore has greater importancewithin the plant. The criticality data for the equipment reflects thefact that it has a greater importance than other equipment, and may beexpressed as a quantitative interpretation such as a maintenancepriority index.

In one example, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 uses datareceived from the above data sources to oversee the status of variousassets within the plant 10 or business entity, at various levels ofhierarchy. In particular, by collecting asset status information andcriticality data from disparate sources to a common source, the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60 allows a variety of users to viewstatus information of equipment in conjunction with the criticality datato provide an improved understanding of the importance of the equipmentto the loop, sub-unit, unit, area, plant, etc. Because the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60 allows the user to view the assetsat various levels of hierarchy, a user may further view the status of aloop in conjunction with its importance, view the status of a sub-unitin conjunction with its importance, etc. The user is thereby able tomake more informed decisions in response to the status of variousassets.

Still further, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 mayprovide data to enterprise resource planning tools such as thosetypically used in business solutions or business computers 35 and 36.These applications may include production planning tools which controlproduction planning, material resource planning, the work ordergeneration tool 54 which automatically generates part .orders, workorders, or supply orders for use in the business applications, etc. Ofcourse, the part order, work order and supply order generation may becompleted automatically by the asset monitoring and maintenance system60 as described further below, which decreases the time required torecognize that an asset needs to be fixed as well as the time is takesto receive the parts necessary to provide corrective action with respectto maintenance issues.

The asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 may also provideinformation to the maintenance system applications 66, which not onlyalert maintenance people to problems immediately, but also takecorrective measures such as ordering work, parts, etc. which will beneeded to correct a problem. Still further, new models 56 may begenerated using types of information that are available to the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60 but that were previouslyunavailable to any single system. Of course, it will be understood fromFIG. 2 that the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 not onlyreceives information or data from the data models and the analysis toolsbut, also receives information from and provides information toenterprise resource tools, maintenance tools and process control tools.For example, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 may providedata back to the controls expert 52, the asset utilization expert 50,business applications 64, optimizers 55, maintenance systems 66, controlroutines 62, models 56 and other systems and applications within theplant 10 to perform improved diagnostics and analysis, optimization,maintenance decisions, business decisions, process control decisions,etc. for any level of hierarchy within the process plant 10. Forexample, the asset utilization expert 50, optimizers 55, control expert52, control routines 62 and process control operators may make improveddecisions regarding optimization within the plant 10 through a betterunderstanding of the status of plant assets in relation to theirimportance. Likewise, maintenance systems 66, work order generationroutines 54 and maintenance personnel may make improved maintenancedecisions, such as the order in which assets are repaired or maintained,the generation and expediency of work orders or part orders, etc.Business applications 64 and business personnel may use the data fromthe asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 to make improved businessdecisions regarding production, supply orders, etc.

In addition, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 oversees(and may actually execute) corrective measures within the plant 10,including corrective measures provided by CMMS, the work ordergeneration routine 54, maintenance system applications 66, and the like.As mentioned above, maintenance personnel may make improved decisionsregarding which asset to repair, including prioritization of work ordersand part orders for repairing a problem with an asset. In addition,maintenance personnel or other users may view the status of work ordersand part orders generated by the CMMS, work order generation routine 54,maintenance system applications 66, etc. and make decisions based on thestatus of such orders. Based on the criticality of an asset, a work orpart order that has been generated but not yet executed may be given anew priority, such as expediting an order for a critical asset having apoor status, or otherwise rescheduling orders based on the importance ofthe corresponding assets. Further, the specifics of an order may bemodified by the user based on the status and importance of an assetincluding ordering additional or different parts, additional work,modification of the frequency of maintenance activities, assignadditional or different maintenance personnel to the repair of an asset,etc. Accordingly, a user may not only track maintenance activitieswithin the plant 10, but may better optimize the maintenance activitieswithin the plant 10 and direct maintenance activities based not only onthe status of the assets, but also based on the importance of the assetto the loop, sub-unit, unit, area or plant.

In one example, the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 mayinclude an expert engine which may include a set of rules that utilizethe status data, maintenance data and/or the criticality data to performthe above activities, including monitoring existing orders or othermaintenance activities, modifying existing maintenance activities,initiating new maintenance activities, re-prioritizing maintenanceactivities, etc. In one example, expert engine of the asset monitoringand maintenance system 60 may be similar to the work order generationroutine 54. As a result, a critical asset having a poor status indicatormay automatically result in an analysis of the problem to determine thecause and generate a solution. The solution may be based on maintenanceprocedures previously developed by and received from the CMMS or othermaintenance application 66. Accordingly, the asset monitoring andmaintenance system 60 may automatically generate an appropriate workorder and/or part order directed to the specifics of the problem,including assigning particular maintenance personnel to the problem,ordering particular parts to solve the problem, etc. and communicatingthe order to the appropriate personnel, part supplier, etc.Alternatively, a work order or part order previously generated by theCMMS or work order generation routine 54 may be automatically modifiedby the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 to provide a moreoptimal response to problems within the plant 10 and better utilizemaintenance resources.

Moreover, one or more coordinated user interface routines 58 maycommunicate with the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 as wellas any other applications within the plant 10 to provide help andvisualization to operators, maintenance persons, business persons, etc.The operators, and other users may use the coordinated user interfaceroutines 58 to perform or to implement predictive control, changesettings of the plant 10, view help within the plant 10, or perform anyother activities related to the information provided by the assetmonitoring and maintenance system 60. As discussed above, the userinterface routines 58 may include an operator guidance tool thatreceives information from the asset monitoring and maintenance system60, which can be used by an operator or other user to help perform manyfunctions such as viewing the status of a process or devices within theprocess, to view the status of a corrective measure, initiate newcorrective measure, modify an existing corrective measure, etc. Stillfurther, the user interface routines 58 may be used to view data or toobtain data from any of the tools in the other parts of the processplant 10 via, for example, the asset utilization expert 50 and thefailure defense planning evaluations 68. For example, managers may wantto know what is happening in the processor may need high levelinformation related to the process plant 10 to make strategic plans.

The user interface routines 58 provides a graphical user interface (GUI)that is integrated with the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60described herein to facilitate a user's interaction with the variousmonitoring and maintenance capabilities provided by the asset monitoringand maintenance system 60. However, before discussing the GUI in greaterdetail, it should be recognized that the GUI may include one or moresoftware routines that are implemented using any suitable programminglanguages and techniques. Further, the software routines making up theGUI may be stored and processed within a single processing station orunit, such as, for example, a workstation, a controller, etc. within theplant 10 or, alternatively, the software routines of the GUI may bestored and executed in adistributed manner using a plurality ofprocessing units that are communicatively coupled to each other withinthe asset monitoring and maintenance system 60. For example, the userinterface routine 58 and GUI may be incorporated as part of a web-basedsoftware routine that permits a user to view status, criticality andmaintenance data via a network connection, such as over the PlantwideLAN 37, the Internet, or other communications system, thereby allowing auser to the status and criticality, and any associated correctivemeasures, on a device, loop, unit, area, etc. remotely from where thatdevice, loop, unit, area, etc. is located or even remotely from theprocess plant 10. For example, reports, or summaries thereof, may besent to phones, pagers, electronic mail, etc. This may be particularlyuseful if the report is time critical (e.g., a device failure alert). Anexample of a method and system that could permit a user to view data viaa communications system to a pager, cellular phone, personal digitalassistant, email address, laptop computer, desktop computer, or anyother type of device or hardware platform may be found in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/123,445 entitled “Web Services-BasedCommunications For Use With Process Control Systems,” which was filed onApr. 15, 2002, and which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the GUI may be implemented using afamiliar graphical windows-based structure and appearance, in which aplurality of interlinked graphical views or pages include one or morepull-down menus that enable a user to navigate through the pages in adesired manner to view and/or retrieve aparticular type of information.The features and/or capabilities of the asset monitoring and maintenancesystem 60 described above may be represented, accessed, invoked, etc.through one or more corresponding pages, views or displays of the GUI.Furthermore, the various displays making up the GUI may be interlinkedin a logical manner to facilitate a user's quick and intuitivenavigation through the displays to retrieve a particular type ofinformation or to access and/or invoke a particular capability of theasset monitoring and maintenance system 60.

Generally speaking, the GUI described herein provides intuitivegraphical depictions or displays of business entities, process plants10, process control areas, units, loops, devices, etc. Each of thesegraphical displays may include numerical and/or descriptive statusinformation and criticality information that is associated with aparticular view being displayed by the GUI. For example, a displaydepicting a process control area may provide a set of indices reflectingthe status of that area (i.e., a particular portion of the processcontrol system at a particular level of the equipment hierarchy) and amaintenance priority index or other quantitative representation of thecriticality of the area. On the other hand, a display depicting a devicemay provide a set of status indices and criticality index associatedwith that particular device. In any event, a user may use the statusinformation and criticality information shown within any view, page ordisplay to quickly assess whether a problem exists within any of thedevices, loops, etc. depicted within that display and the assess theoptimal response to the problem.

Additionally, the GUI described herein may automatically, or may inresponse to a request by a user, provide maintenance information to theuser. The maintenance information may be provided by any portion of theasset monitoring and maintenance system 60. Similarly, the GUI maydisplay alarm information, process control information, etc., which mayalso be provided via the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60.Still further, the GUI may provide messages to the user in connectionwith a problem that has occurred or which may be about to occur withinthe plant 10. These messages may include graphical and/or textualinformation that describes the problem,. suggests possible changes tothe system which may be implemented to alleviate a current problem orwhich may be implemented to avoid a potential problem, describes coursesof action that may be pursued to correct or to avoid a problem, etc.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary depiction of a graphical display that may beprovided by the GUI to provide status, criticality and correctivemeasure data to a user to quickly analyze assets within a businessentity or plant 10 which have been determined to have a high priorityfor maintenance activities. As shown in FIG. 3, the GUI may graphicallydepict the assets with a high priority for maintenance activities. Inparticular, the GUI provides details 100 regarding the assets, includingan alphanumeric identifier (e.g., CR-2000) that uniquely identifies thatasset within the plant. Each asset may be displayed with a correspondingdescription of the asset, the type of asset, manufacturer and model maybe provided within the display.

With each corresponding asset, the criticality of the asset is displayedas provided via the failure defense planning evaluations. As noted inFIG. 3, the criticality is provided as a quantitative numerical value102, though it should be recognized that different representations ofcriticality may be utilized, such as alphanumeric representations,various colors or shadings representing different degrees ofcriticality, or any other manner of visual representation. Ideally, therepresentation is provided to enable a user to quickly ascertain thecriticality of the asset.

Likewise, the status of each asset is displayed as a quantitative value104 with corresponding colors and shadings to quickly ascertain thestatus of the devices. By way of example only, health index values forthe high priority assets are displayed. However, different statusinformation may be displayed for any of the assets as desired, examplesof which have been provided throughout this disclosure. As can beappreciated from the display shown in FIG. 3, a user can quicklyascertain which assets within a plant 10 that need immediate attention,which may be causing a particular problem and/or which require expeditedcorrective measures. It should be noted that while not all assets haveparticularly poor health, the criticality value 102 may nonethelessdictate that the asset required maintenance in order to optimize theloop, sub-unit, unit, area or plant of which the asset is a part,because the degraded health, even if relatively minimal, may have asignificant impact on the loop, sub-unit, unit, area, plant, etc.

A summary of additional status information 106 associated with theasset, including indications of various diagnostics or analysis that mayhave been performed with respect to the asset (e.g., oil analysis,ultrasonic analysis, vibration analysis, infrared thermography analysis,calibration, etc.) are displayed. The status or result of each analysismay be depicted by corresponding alphanumeric and/or color/shadingindicators, though it should be recognized that various other graphicaldepictions may be utilized. As disclosed above, orders such as work andpart orders may be generated by the CMMS or the work order generationroutine 54. The status 108 of the order, if any, is displayed for eachasset.

It will also be understood from viewing the GUI of FIG. 3 that a usermay be provided with a plantwide view of the assets and viewsuccessively lower and lower entities within a plant and be providedstatus information about each of these different entities or views.Thus, for example, a user may look at a view of the plant and see statusinformation for the plant. The user may then focus on one asset, such asby selecting one of the assets within the plant view, and see the statusinformation associated with that asset whether it be a device, loop,sub-unit, unit, area, etc. A user may use a mouse to click on the asset,or the associated alphanumeric identifier or, alternatively, may enterthe identifier via a keyboard, to request a new window or a pop-upwindow to display status information for that asset. For example, usermay use a mouse to click on an area to display status information forthat area. Similarly, by clicking on units within the displayed area,the status information for different units may be viewed. Likewise,status information for loops, sub units, devices etc. may then be viewedby focusing in on these different entities from a view of an entity inwhich these lower level entities are located. In this manner, a user canquickly find the cause of a problem or potential problem at any point orlevel of the plant, find maintenance activities at any level of theplant, identify high priority assets at any level of the plant, etc.

Each asset, status information, description, criticality information andcorrective measures listed in the display may be arranged to allow auser to request further detailed information regarding that statusinformation and/or entity. For example, the listed assets, statusinformation, descriptions, criticality information and associatedcorrective measures may be user selectable icons, similar to a hyperlinkin a web page, that link to another report featuring further detailedinformation associated with the selected entity or status information.In response to a user action or request (e.g., clicking on the link),the display of FIG. 3 may be replaced with the more detailedinformation, or alternatively, a new window may appear reporting on thefurther detailed status information regarding the selected asset orview. For example, a user may select one of the high priority assets toimmediately view high priority problems within the plant 10, or the usermay select a plantwide view (labeled “Dashboard”). Additional selectionsinclude an audit trail of events within the plant (“Event History”), allactive alerts within the plant 10, a listing of all assets within theplant 10, and browse/search function for finding a specific asset.

FIGS. 4-8 are exemplary depictions of graphical displays that may beprovided by the GUI to enable a user to view further informationrelating to a high priority asset (e.g., CR-2000) listed in the displayof FIG. 3. Notably, the GUI enables a user to navigate among the variousassets within the process plant 10 and view various status information,criticality information and maintenance information for the plant andany asset thereof to provide consolidated reporting for all assetswithin the process plant 10. As shown in FIGS. 4-8, a user is providedwith a tree level view 200 of the various assets within the processplant 10. The tree level view 200 permits the user to easily navigate toview status, criticality and maintenance information regarding differentassets within the process plant 10. In this particular example, the treelevel view 200 is arranged according to the assets within the plant 10,Various plants within a business entity and various status information(e.g., compressor results) pertaining to the selected asset. However,the tree level view 200 may be arranged in any desired manner accordingto user preferences. Therefore, the tree level view 200 may be arrangedaccording to the various levels within the process plant 10, the assetswithin the plant 10, data sources used to provided the informationdisplayed by the GUI, or any other desired configuration.

Alongside the-tree level view 200, is a representation of furtherdetails regarding the selected asset. For example, in FIG. 4 a summaryof the compressor CR-2000 is shown with details regarding its operatingperiod and efficiency during the operating period. As with the treelevel view 200, the summary may be user-configurable to list variousstatus information, criticality information or maintenance informationrelating to the selected asset. For example, the display of FIG. 4allows a user to view a summary of the operating period andcorresponding efficiency data during the operating period associatedwith the compressor CR-2000. In response to a user action or request,(e.g., clicking on the link), the display of Fig. 4 may be replaced withgraphical representations of the efficiency (FIG. 5) or the polytropicefficiency (FIG. 6) of the compressor during the indicated reportingperiod.

Each listed asset or status information may be user selectable to bringup even further detailed information regarding that asset, for example,by using dynamic links associated with each listed asset, data source,etc. In response to a user request (e.g. clicking on the alphanumericidentifier), status information regarding the details pertaining tocompressor CR-2000 may be displayed in a summary as shown in FIG. 7. Anyor all details regarding compressor CR-2000, including identificatiorinformation (e.g., name, location, manufacturer, model), calibrationstatus, analyses, operating period, efficiency, etc. may then bedisplayed in a separate window or in the same window. Further, a picture210 of the physical device, or representation thereof, is provided toprovide a clear visual representation of the asset at issue. Thephysical device is displayed alongside a graphical meter or gauge 212(i.e., the pie graph) that enables a user to quickly determine thestatus (e.g., health) associated with the asset. Further, thecriticality information, maintenance status and data sources areprovided. It will be understood that the particular status information,criticality information or corrective measure information beingdisplayed is not limited to any particular type, amount or level ofdetail. Instead, as described more fully below, the information that maybe displayed can vary according to a user's need and/or preference.

As shown in FIG. 8, a user may request, and the GUI may display,information summarizing the plants within a business enterprise byselecting the corresponding business enterprise view from the tree levelview 200. Accordingly, a summary of each of the plants 10 may bedisplays, including corresponding operating periods, assets, assetdetails, etc.

FIGS. 9-17 are further exemplary depictions of graphical displays thatmay be provided by the GUI in response to a user request to view furtherstatus, criticality and maintenance information for different assets atvarious level of the process plant 10. For example, in response to auser request to display a plantwide view (“Dashboard”) from the displayof FIG. 3. Notably, a tree level view 300 is displayed and arrangedaccording the various levels within the plant 10 and according to thevarious data sources. Accordingly, the menu 300 permits the user toeasily navigate to view status information regarding different levelsand entities within the plant 10, such as various devices, loops, units,areas, etc., including status information regarding the plant 10 itself.The menu 300 is further arranged according to the types of informationthat may be viewed, and may be arranged according to any other desiredconfiguration.

FIG. 9 is exemplary depiction of a display that may be provided by theGUI to enable a user to view a summary of the plant, 10, including alisting of the plant assets, active alerts, active alerts by severity,information regarding recent events, and an aggregate index inconnection with the plant. Each of the displays, other than the index,is user configurable to select different views of plantwide alerts,assets, events, etc. A user may use a mouse to click on a given asset,event, alert, etc., to request a corresponding information. In thismanner, a user can view additional detailed information about any aspectof the plant 10.

Above the listed status information for the plant are more userselectable icons responsive to user actions which bring up furtherdetailed status information. These user selectable icons (or “tabs”)reflect summary views of available information and are arranged alongthe top of the display to allow navigation among further availablestatus information. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a user may viewall assets within the plant 10 by selecting the “Assets” tab. Theresulting display includes a listing of all assets within the plant 10along with the corresponding status information, criticality informationand associated corrective measures.

As shown in FIG. 11, a user may view all current alerts or eventsassociated with the plant 10 by selecting the “Active Alerts” tab. Theresulting display of active alert information may list each of the ofthe assets that currently have a problem, along with details regardingthe alert such as the date/time, identification of the asset, severityof the alert, criticality of the asset, location, etc. Any or alldetails regarding an active alert associated with an asset, (e.g.,CR-2000) may be displayed as shown in the display of FIG. 7 above. Thedetails may further include recommended actions to be taken given thestatus information (e.g., maintenance) along with explanations of or thedegree of the current status of the asset (e.g., severity, urgency,etc.) and description (e.g. currently operating outside defined limits).

As shown in FIG. 12, a historical summary or audit trail may bedisplayed in response to a user request for “Event History”. In thisparticular example, the history regarding all assets within the plant 10are displayed to allow the user to quickly assess the progression of thestatus of each of the assets and the corresponding history. Thehistorical summary may further be used to display a history of allentities within a given location, a history of a particular entity, ahistory-of a particular type of fault, etc. Each historical entry mayfurther be user selectable to display details regarding that particularevent. Examples of some of the details that may be listed include dateand time of the event, the type of event, a brief description of theevent, event location, etc.

Using the tree level view 300, a user may view various levels and datasources within a plant 10 and corresponding information regarding eachlevel or data source. For example, with reference to FIGS. 14-17, a usermay use the tree level view 300 to view an area within the plant 10(FIG. 14), specific data sources (FIG. 15), data sources by location(FIGS. 16 and 17). Each corresponding view includes a summary of statusinformation regarding each selected view, such as the correspondingassets, alerts, events, etc. Notably with each display, the tabsdescribed above are provided to display asset information, alertinformation and historical event information as desired by the user.

While the asset monitoring and maintenance system 60 and other processelements have been described as preferably being implemented insoftware, they may be implemented in hardware, firmware, etc., and maybe; implemented by any other processor associated with the processcontrol system 10. Thus, the elements described herein may beimplemented in a standard multi-purpose CPU or on specifically designedhardware or firmware such as an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC) or other hard-wired device as desired. When implemented insoftware, the software routine may be stored in any computer readablememory such as on a magnetic disk, a laser disk, or other storagemedium, in a RAM or ROM of a computer or processor, in any database,etc. Likewise, this software may be delivered to a user or a processplant via any known or desired delivery method including, for example,on a computer readable disk or other transportable computer storagemechanism or over a communication channel such as a telephone line, theinternet, wireless communication, etc. (which are viewed as being thesame as or interchangeable with providing such software via atransportable storage medium). Also, while the asset monitoring andmaintenance system 60 is described as possibly being a rule-basedexpert, other types of expert engines could be used as well, includingthose which use other known data mining techniques.

Thus, while the present invention has been described with reference tospecific examples, which are intended to be illustrative only and not tobe limiting of the invention, it will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art that changes, additions or deletions may be made to thedisclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

1. A method of monitoring an entity within a process plant comprising:collecting entity status data pertaining to the status of an entitywithin the process plant; collecting criticality data pertaining to theimportance of the entity within the process plant; and using the entitystatus data and the criticality data to perform a function within theprocess plant.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the criticality datacomprises an evaluation of the importance of the entity within theprocess plant.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting entitystatus data comprises collecting equipment data pertaining to the statusof equipment within the process plant, and wherein using the entity-status data and the criticality data to perform a function comprisesusing the equipment data and the criticality data to perform a functionwithin the process plant.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein collectingentity status data comprises collecting process control data pertainingto the status of process control activities within the process plant,and wherein using the entity status data and the criticality data toperform a function comprises using the process control data and thecriticality data to perform a function within the process plant.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein collecting entity status data comprisesperforming process performance monitoring to generate processperformance data related to the performance of the process, whereinusing the entity status data and the criticality data to perform afunction comprises using the process performance data and thecriticality data to perform a function within the process plant.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the entity status data comprises datapertaining to the operation of the entity while the entity is inoperation.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity status datacomprises diagnostic data pertaining to the entity.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the entity status data comprises on-line monitoringdata pertaining to the entity.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theentity status data comprises alert data pertaining to a problem with theentity.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the function within theprocess plant comprises a diagnostic function and wherein using theentity status data and the criticality data to perform a functioncomprises combining the entity status data and the criticality data toperform a diagnostic function.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thediagnostic function comprises at least one of the group consisting of:an equipment monitoring diagnostic function, a process controldiagnostic function and a process performance diagnostic function. 12.The method of claim 1, wherein the function within the process plantcomprises a process control function and wherein using the entity statusdata and the criticality data to perform a function comprises using theentity status data and the criticality data to change a process controlparameter.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the function within theprocess plant comprises a viewing function and wherein using the entitystatus data and the criticality data to perform a function comprisescreating and displaying a display screen via a display terminal usingthe entity status data and the criticality data.
 14. The method of claim13, further comprising storing a representation of the entity anddisplaying the entity status data and the criticality data proximatelyto the corresponding representation.
 15. The method of claim 13, whereindisplaying the display screen comprising displaying the display screenvia a web interface.
 16. The method of claim 13, further comprisingdisplaying entity alarm data pertaining on a display screen.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the function comprises a maintenance functionand wherein using the entity status data and the criticality data toperform a function comprises using the entity status data and thecriticality data to perform a maintenance function.
 18. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the function comprises a decision function and whereinusing the entity status data and the criticality data to perform afunction comprises using the entity status data and the criticality datato execute a decision within the process plant.
 19. The method of claim18, wherein using the entity status data and the criticality data toexecute a decision comprises using the entity status data and thecriticality data to analyze the entity.
 20. The method of claim 18,wherein using the entity status data and the criticality data to executea decision comprises using the-entity status data and the criticalitydata to analyze an aspect of the process plant other than the entity.21. The method of claim 18, wherein using the entity status data and thecriticality data to execute a decision comprises using the entity statusdata and the criticality data to initiate an automated process.
 22. Themethod of claim 18, wherein using the entity status data and thecriticality data to execute a decision comprises using the entity statusdata and the criticality data to optimize control of the entity.
 23. Themethod of claim 18, wherein using the entity status data and thecriticality data to execute a decision comprises using the entity statusdata and the criticality data to adjust a parameter of the entity. 24.The method of claim 1, wherein the entity status data comprises a useindex pertaining to the status of the entity.
 25. The method of claim24, wherein the use index comprises a health index indicating the healthof the entity.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the use indexcomprises a performance index indicating the relative performance of theentity.
 27. The method of claim 24, wherein the use index comprises avariability index indicating an amount of deviation of a parameter ofthe entity.
 28. The method of claim 24, wherein the use index comprisesa utilization index indicating a degree of exploitation of the entity.29. A process control system within a process plant comprising:equipment monitoring devices that collect equipment data pertaining tothe status of equipment within the process plant; a database adapted tostore criticality data pertaining to the importance of the entity withinthe process plant; and a computer system operatively coupled to thedatabase that implements a software routine that receives thecriticality data and the equipment data and that uses equipment data andthe criticality data to perform a function within the process plant. 30.The system of claim 29, wherein the status data comprises datapertaining to the operation of the equipment while the equipment is inoperation.
 31. The system of claim 29, wherein the status data comprisesdiagnostic data pertaining to the equipment.
 32. The system of claim 29,wherein the status data comprises on-line monitoring data pertaining tothe equipment.
 33. The system of claim 29, wherein the status datacomprises alert data pertaining to a problem with the equipment.
 34. Thesystem of claim 29, wherein the function within the process plantcomprises a diagnostic function and wherein the software routinecomprises a diagnostic routine that combines the equipment status dataand the criticality data to perform a diagnostic function.
 35. Thesystem of claim 29, wherein the function within the process plantcomprises a process control function and wherein the software routinecomprises a process control routine that uses the equipment status dataand the criticality data to change a process control parameter.
 36. Thesystem of claim 29, wherein the function within the process plantcomprises a viewing function and wherein the software routine is adaptedto create and display a display screen via a display terminal using theequipment status data and the criticality data.
 37. The system of claim36, wherein the software routine is adapted to store a representation ofthe equipment and further adapted to display the equipment status dataand the criticality data proximately to the correspondingrepresentation.
 38. The system of claim 36, wherein the equipmentmonitoring device, the database and the computer system are coupled viaan internet, and wherein the software routine comprises a web interface.39. The system of claim 36, wherein the software routine displays entityalarm data pertaining on a display screen.
 40. The system of claim 29,wherein the function comprises a maintenance function and wherein thesoftware routine comprises a maintenance routine that uses the equipmentstatus data and the criticality data to perform a maintenance function.41. The system of claim 29, wherein the function comprises a decisionfunction and wherein the software routine comprises a decision routinethat uses the equipment status data and the criticality data to executea decision within the process plant.
 42. The system of claim 41, whereinthe decision routine comprises an analysis routine that uses theequipment status data and the criticality data to analyze the equipment.43. The system of claim 41, wherein the decision routine comprises ananalysis routine that uses the equipment status data and the criticalitydata to analyze an aspect of the process plant other than the equipment.44. The system of claim 41, wherein the decision routine comprises anautomation routine that uses the equipment status data and thecriticality data to initiate an automated process.
 45. The system ofclaim 41, wherein the decision routine comprises an optimization routinethat uses the equipment status data and the criticality data to optimizecontrol of the equipment.
 46. The system of claim 41, wherein thedecision routine comprises an adjustment routine that uses the equipmentstatus data and the criticality data to adjust a parameter of theequipment.
 47. The system of claim 29, wherein the status data comprisesa use index pertaining to the status of the equipment.
 48. The system ofclaim 47, wherein the use index comprises one or more of the following:a health index indicating the health of the equipment, a performanceindex indicating the relative performance of the equipment, avariability index indicating an amount of deviation of a parameter ofthe equipment, and a utilization index indicating a degree ofexploitation of the equipment.
 49. A method of monitoring an entityhaving a plurality of lower level entities within a process plant, themethod comprising: receiving status data pertaining to the status ofeach of the lower level entities; receiving criticality data pertainingto the importance of each lower level entity among the plurality oflower level entities to the entity; and using the status data and thecriticality data to perform a function within the process plant.
 50. Themethod of claim 49 wherein receiving status data pertaining to thestatus of the plurality of lower level entities comprises receivingstatus data pertaining to the operation of each of the plurality oflower level entities while each lower level entity is in operation. 51.The method of claim 49 wherein the criticality data comprises anevaluation of the importance of each of the plurality of lower levelentities to the entity.
 52. The method of claim 49 wherein the functioncomprises a viewing function and wherein using the status data and thecriticality data to perform a function comprises displaying arepresentation of the entity, displaying status data pertaining to thestatus of the entity proximately to the representation of the entity.53. The method of claim 52 further comprising: displaying arepresentation of each of the lower level entities; displaying statusdata pertaining to the status of each the lower level entitiesproximately to each corresponding representation; and displayingcriticality data pertaining to the importance of each of the lower levelentities within the entity proximately to each correspondingrepresentation.
 54. The method of claim 49 wherein the functioncomprises a diagnostic function and wherein using the using the statusdata and the criticality data to perform a function comprises using thestatus data and the criticality data to:perform a diagnostic functionpertaining to the entity.
 55. The method of claim 54 wherein using thestatus data and the criticality data to perform a diagnostic functioncomprises using the status data and the criticality data to perform adiagnostic function pertaining to at -least one of the plurality oflower level entities.
 56. The method of claim 49 wherein the functioncomprises a process control function and wherein using the status dataand the criticality data to perform a function comprises using thestatus data and the criticality data to change a process controlparameter of the entity.
 57. The method of claim 56 wherein using thestatus data and the criticality data comprises to change a processcontrol parameter of the entity comprises using the status data and thecriticality data comprises to change a process control parameter of alower level entity.
 58. The method of claim 49 wherein the functioncomprises a maintenance function and wherein using the status data andthe criticality data to perform a function comprises using the statusdata and the criticality data to performance a maintenance functionrelated to a lower level entity.
 59. The method of claim 49 wherein thefunction comprises a decision function and wherein using the status dataand the criticality data to perform a function comprises using thestatus data and the criticality data to execute a decision within theprocess plant.
 60. The method of claim 59 wherein using the status dataand the criticality data to execute a decision comprises using thestatus data and the criticality data to analyze a lower level entity.61. The method of claim 59 wherein using the status data and thecriticality data to execute a decision comprises using the status dataand the criticality data to analyze the entity.
 62. The method of claim59 wherein using the status data and the criticality data to execute adecision comprises using the status data and the criticality data tooptimize control of a lower level entity.
 63. The method of claim 59wherein using the status data and the criticality data to execute adecision comprises using the status data and the criticality data tooptimize control of the entity.
 64. A system for displaying the statusof an entity within a process plant having a plurality of entities, thesystem comprising: a processor; a display; a database adapted to storestatus data for each of the plurality of entities and to storecriticality data pertaining to the importance of each of the entitiesamong the plurality of entities; a routine adapted to be executed by theprocessor which stores a representation of each of the plurality ofentities; and a routine adapted to be executed by the processor whichdisplays a set of the representations, which displays the status dataproximately to each corresponding representation in the set and whichdisplays the criticality data of each entity proximately to eachcorresponding representation in the set.
 65. The system of claim 64wherein the status data comprises data pertaining to the operation ofeach of the plurality of entities while each entity is in operation. 66.The system of claim 64 wherein the criticality data comprises anevaluation of the importance of each of the plurality of entities amongthe plurality of entities.
 67. The system of claim 64 further comprisinga routine adapted to be executed by the processor which uses the statusdata and the criticality data to perform a diagnostic function relatedto at least one of the plurality of entities.
 68. The system of claim 64further comprising a routine adapted to be executed by the processorwhich uses the status data and the criticality data to change a processcontrol parameter.
 69. The system of claim 64 further comprising aroutine adapted to be executed by the processor which uses the statusdata and the criticality data to perform a maintenance function.
 70. Thesystem of claim 64 further comprising a routine adapted to be executedby the processor which uses the status data and the criticality data toexecute a decision within the process plant.